Discord
by Glassharmony
Summary: Over a decade since the fall of the Fire Empire, yet the world is unbalanced. The supernatural counterpart of the Avatar, the Divinity, is missing. The assassination of a loved one sends Aang spinning into madness. The Four Kingdoms grow dark and bloody.
1. Demons

**Demons**

**Tenth Year of the Dawn Empire**

_Aang stands alone. The spirit world shifts and pulses around him. A living thing. Nausea stirs in his stomach. The air wavers, thick _and_ yellow-tinged. A demon rears before him. Spider legs. The body of a woman. _

"_Widow." Aang's voice echoes, distorts. _

_She giggles, the noise building and echoing in a manic cacophony. "Avatar! I have a surprise for you!" Her face changes, her pale skin darkens to golden brown. Long, black hair tumbles down her back. _

_Aang's nails bite into his palms, he feels the warm stickiness of blood. He knows that the demons here will be able to smell it. Will be drawn to it. _

"_You have no right." He fights to keep his voice calm. _

_The Widow Demon giggles again. "Not yet…"_

"_Never."_

"_The world is out of balance, Avatar. We sense it. We thrive on it…. The Air Nomads have been massacred. The Divinity is lost. The fire may be out, but the embers remain. The scent of smoke lingers."_

"_Don't speak in riddles."_

"_The Fire Lord may have washed the blood from his hands but the wound festers. A glorious time is upon us. A rich, bloody, dark era. It's a decade since you reduced Ozai, Avatar. You are a child no longer. But knowledge has been lost. The knowledge that could save the world."_

"_Tell me."_

"_I have a price." The Widow begins to weave a web. The strands glisten dark red. Aang averts his eyes. The patterns whirl and contort. Look too deeply and be ensnared. _

"_What?"_

_The Widow Demon's web surrounds him. She scuttles upwards, hangs above him. Aang looks up, and it is Katara's face he sees. Her hair tickles his face, silky, familiar. It surrounds him, blocks his view of the shifting, dangerous world. _

"_A kiss. Just a kiss."_

_Katara's eyes are the blue of the ocean, the blue of the sky. He hasn't touched her for so long. Her lips, her skin. He caresses her face. Cradles her cheek. Warm. Soft. _

_He presses his lips against hers. He feels her arms around him, breathes in her scent. He lets himself be lost in her. He inhales deeply, knots his fingers in her hair. A sharp, coppery scent makes him hesitate. She doesn't smell like saltwater and rainstorms. He doesn't feel her pulse, strong as the tides of the ocean. A creeping horror fills him when he realises that more than one pair of hands caresses his back. He jerks away. The Widow Demon clings to him with eight arms. _

"_Staay" she hisses. "Staay. I am sooo much better than her. Than all that's left of her… She's cold, isn't she… Freezing… You can't even touch her. For three years you haven't touched her. You've surrounded her in a cocoon of ice. You've frozen the blood in her veins. But it was cold anyway. She's gone. You were too late. You can't get her back… No matter how much you try, there's no way to revive the dead."_

"_No!" _

"_She's dead, Avatar. You know it, even your son knows it. Do you remember the night it happened? Of course you do. You remember Kae screaming. He was still a baby, wasn't he? You remember rushing in the door, the moonlight bleaching the colour from everything. You thought; something's wrong, something's terribly, terribly wrong. The door was hanging open, the house was freezing. Appa was howling outside. There was a layer of ice, everywhere. You held you hand up, called fire to it. The frozen water sent back thousands upon thousands of reflections. You called out her name. There was no reply. You ran to the nursery. Katara had fought, of course she had. There was a shield of frost over the door, you burst through. She lay on the floor. So still, so white, she looked like a statue. Kae was in his crib, crying, surrounded by a shell of ice. Katara had protected him. Katara hadn't protected herself. Not enough, anyway. The blood looked black in the moonlight-"_

"_Stop!"_

"_Why? This body belongs to me now. The bodies of all murdered women and children belong to me… Who knows, maybe my next acquisition will be little Kae's…" Aang sees a small shape appear on the web. Black, curly hair, his mother's eyes, bright blue, terrified. He is trussed up like a fly, sticky strands block his mouth. He's just a baby, five years old- _

"_No!" He jumps towards him, Aang's hands pass right through his skin. He disappears, dissolves into the darkness. _

"_Don't worry, Avatar. Your son's safe. For now. He's with his uncle. He's the only one who can make him laugh anymore."_

"_Please. Tell me how I can fix this."_

"_Ying and Yang. Moon, sun. Night, day. Male, female. Fire, water. Earth, air. Avatar… Divinity. "_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_Balance, Avatar. The world is falling, spinning out of balance, and so are you. Life and death are different. You are seeking to make them the same. You are the Avatar. The manifestation of the four elements, the physical, the natural. But your other half is missing. You are the light, but where is the dark? The myths of the Divinity have faded. Half of the world is gone."_

"_What's the Divinity?"_

"_What's the Avatar? What is day, what is night? Without one, the other cannot exist."_

"_I don't understand!"_

"_Your counterpart. Your opposite. A nightmare. Madness. The supernatural. Us. My creator. The Divinity has been lost. Hidden. Stolen. Lost as you were lost. Found, but then taken. A past reincarnation hides the newest. Deception."_

"_I need to find the Divinity?"_

"_The Divinity is everything you aren't. The Divinity goes against nature. The Divinity is a Soul Bender."_

"_What do I need to do to bring the world to balance? To bring Katara back?"_

"_Those are two different things, two different questions. The Divinity is chaos, blood, lust. The Divinity defies nature, life, death. What will you sacrifice to save Katara? The Divinity can bring her back. For a cost."_

"_Please…" _

_The Widow laughs shrilly. It sounds like she is screaming. Her web begins to burn. "Goodbye, Aang." She speaks in Katara's voice. She disappears. _

_Smoke hangs, heavy and bitter in the air. It whips away into nothingness. The Spirit World dissolves around him. _

_Aang comes back into his body. He is cold. _

_He is seated cross legged before a marble altar. Blue fire burns in the lamps, in the thousands of candles lining the walls. The light reflects, refracts. It casts thousands of rainbows over the walls. Aang stands, stiffly, and leans against the white marble. He traces a hand over the ice. Katara's beloved face is just out of reach. Her eyes are closed, her hands crossed neatly over her heart. Tiny white flowers glow in her dark hair. She looks like a doll, immaculate, porcelain. Untouchable. _

_The ice protects, preserves. She looks as though she is sleeping._

_He presses his lips against the ice. It burns. _

"_I'll save you. I won't give up. Ever. I promise."_

_He walks away. As he leaves, a whirlwind begins to howl around the ice in a perfect sphere. Blue lighting creates another orb of protection, lacy, glowing electric blue. He closes the door of the tomb behind him and uses earth to ensure the marble is locked tight, impenetrable. _

"_Whatever the price"._


	2. Dreams

__**Dreams**

_The wind howled. _

_The air was icy, pure. So cold it cut like a knife. The clouds swirled at their feet. Rue clung to Hirem's neck. "I'm scared" she whispered. _

"_Don't be stupid." He hopped on one foot. "I can't lose my balance up here. The air won't let me fall." He leaned over the cliff edge, flung out his arms. Rue squeaked and wrapped her arms and legs around him even more tightly. _

"_But I'm not an Airbender." _

"_I won't let you fall."_

_Rue smiled. "Dad used to say that. He dropped me once."_

"_But he caught you!"_

"_Mum never let him forget it."_

"_Well, if she'd had to, she could have caught you too."_

"_Why am I the only one who can't airbend?"_

_The question hung in the air between them, thin and breathless against the mountain wind. _

"_I can fly for you." Hirem threw himself over the edge and Rue shrieked. They swooped down, not really flying, but not really falling, riding the updrafts and currents of air like waves. _

_They landed on the ground gently. Rue clambered down from her brother's back. "You're getting better!"_

"_I am fourteen."_

"_Well, you're better than any of the other teenagers back hom-" Rue stopped talking, noticing Hirem's face, tight-lipped, closed-off. _

"_Stop talking about them as though they're still alive. We're alone now."_

"_The Avatar is an Airbender."_

"_He didn't save us. Our people managed to hide for a hundred years, but he still didn't defeat Ozai in time. The soldiers killed everyone, Rue. The roads turned to mud, flooded with blood. Then they burnt… It's been two years. You're nine. It's time to grow up."_

"_But-"_

"_It's his fault they're dead. We can't ever forget that." Hirem's eyes were hard, cold. Steely blue, like the sky before a storm. _

"_Yes." _

_The clouds whirled, white and endless. They began to converge, drawn downwards, towards them, like a waterfall from the sky. _

"_Hirem!" Rue shrieked, clinging to his arm. Her brother began to laugh, his white hair swirling in the howling wind. He was standing beside her, but he was obscured. The clouds were icy, freezing. He pushed her away, hands as cold as ice. _

"_Please! Don't leave me!" _

"_Goodbye, sister."_

* * *

><p><strong>Fourth Year of the Dawn Empire<strong>

"No!" Elial screamed, jolting upright. Her room was dark. The red silk hangings around her bed glowed like streams of dark wine, the firelight shivering behind them.

"La? It's just a nightmare…" The man beside her rolled onto his side, squinting at her, still half-asleep.

"Yes… Sorry, sorry…"

"Come here." Cain opened his arms and she curled up inside them, feeling the warmth of him against her back.

"Goodnight." She whispered the word against her pillow, staring at the stars blazing outside her window, watching the clouds obscure the moon.

"Such beautiful hair." Elial stared at herself in the mirror as Adina ran the brush through her hair. Again and again, till it shone like a river of silk. Adina continued, beginning to braid, her fingers quick and supple. "You're nearly eleven now, Divinity. No more of this tree climbing, rough business. Those scars on your knees…. You have such lovely, soft skin… when I was a girl I never went into the sun, and look at me now! No wrinkles to speak of, and-"

"That's hardly thanks to your avoidance of the sun, Adina." Elial jumped up at the sound of Cain's voice, thankful for the chance to escape.

Adina tsked, pinning the last of the plaits in place. "Well, the Divinity has had a hand in it, but she must remember to behave as a lady should, isn't that right? Divinity?"

"Hm? Yes." Elial tore her eyes away from the window. The lake reflected the sunlight as though it was on fire, blazing almost too brightly to look at.

"Speaking of that, La… A Blessed has come forward… We should do the ceremony soon." Cain stared at her, his eyes such a light grey that they looked like moonstones.

Adina hissed like a cat. "So soon? She had a ceremony just last week! She still hasn't healed!" She grasped Elial's bandaged wrist, brandishing it at Cain.

"I know!" Adina fell silent, her arm still wrapped protectively around Elial's shoulders. Cain pushed his hair back from his face impatiently. "The Blessed can be… Unstable. Until they're pledged they are extraordinarily… self-centred. Driven. They only want one thing, and they aren't always… polite about getting it."

"I'm not tired." Elial stood up. "We could have the ceremony after breakfast… I haven't initiated a Blessed before."

"After today you probably won't have to. They're rare. I was certain there wouldn't be any this time. We all thought… _I _thought we were rid of-"

"I'm surprised you aren't rejoicing, Cain." Adina's voice was unusually sharp. Cain went very still.

"It complicates things." His voice was silken smooth, emotionless.

"Indeed."

"I have no patience for tangles. I cut the thread."

"Yet you haven't cut this one." Was that leashed triumph in Adina's voice?

"This Blessed… is the Riverlord's eldest son."

"I see. Perhaps it's for the best. I hate puzzles too."

Elial didn't understand their conversation, or the vicious look that Cain suddenly threw at Adina. Their words seemed as double-edged as Cain's knives, shivering through the air with precision and a deadly edge that made her shiver. She knew the Riverlord, Sir Krake, through she had never spoken to him. It was due to his generosity that they were able to stay hidden in the temple city.

"I'm hungry." Elial stood up, hoping to break the inexplicable tension.

"Yes." When she reached him by the door, Cain threw an arm around her shoulders. "Make sure you drink plenty of water too, La. You have to give more in the initiation of a Blessed."

"Why?"

Cain was silent for a long moment. "They're closer to the edge than the rest of us. They need a strong anchor."

Elial giggled. "Am I an anchor?"

"Yes!" Cain suddenly picked her up, spinning her around till the world became a whirl of colour, light and dark.

* * *

><p>The boy was only a few years older than her. He lounged in the parlour, arms crossed sulkily over his chest.<p>

"Elial. This is Fenris. Fenris. This is the Divinity." Cain hovered at her side, one hand warm on her shoulder.

"I still don't understand." The man who spoke had platinum hair streaked with silver. His face was as cragged as the cliffs where he and his people eked out a living. The Riverlord swung an accusatory finger at her. "You told me she would bring no trouble, as long as I kept her existence secret. And now you want my son? It won't do. Not at all."

"Father. I have to. There is no choice. If I don't become Blessed, I'll die." The boy's voice was flat, his pale blue eyes intense. He didn't blink as he stared at Elial. She shifted from foot to foot uneasily.

Sir Krake drew himself up indignantly. "Is this some kind of… of spell? Is she a witch? A demon? I won't have it. Not on my lands, not my heir."

"_Father." _The boy stood up, tugged at the collar of his shirt. "You know you can't stop me." Elial supressed a gasp when she glimpsed the dark bruises ringing his neck.

Sir Krake seemed to shrink in on himself. His hands shook as he rested them on his son's shoulders.

"Fenris." The name was a sigh of defeat. He pulled the boy to him suddenly, arms tight. The boy embraced him back.

"I'll visit sometimes, father."

Cain made a soft noise of protest. Fenris glared at him. "Not enough to draw attention. I'm not a fool."

The Riverlord sat down in an armchair, resting his face in his hands.

"I wish you people had never come here, with your gold and your… _Divinity_. I want to know what you're going to do to my boy."

Cain sighed. "Fenris is a Blessed. Once they hear the call, they cannot ignore it, or they will go mad. A Blessed has one purpose. They act as a conduit to the Divinity's previous incarnation. Once this ceremony has been undertaken, the last Divinity, Aerys, will be able to speak through him."

"Witchcraft!' murmured Sir Krake, his face ashen. "The Avatar has no such thing! Why-"

"The Divinity is the opposite of the Avatar. Besides, the world has long been… prejudiced against the Divinity, and the wisdom of previous incarnations is often required for survival."

"What is the ceremony? Why can't-"

Cain shook his head. "We will tell you no more."

The Riverlord pressed his lips together hopelessly. He reached for Fenris. "My son-"

Fenris stepped out of his reach. "Goodbye, Father. We will see each other again soon."

"No-"

Fenris turned his back on his father and stepped towards the door. He spoke to Cain.

"Shall we go? I feel like my blood's boiling. And this Aerys won't be quiet…Whispering and whispering."


	3. Blood on Snow

**Blood on Snow**

**The Tenth Year of the Dawn Empire**

Elial knew she was going to die.

The trees were ashy brown, skeletal against the sleet grey sky. The scattered snow glowed white against black forest soil. She could hear the low moan of the wind, a constant companion in the Earth Kingdom Steppes. She shivered. It was mourning her.

The hunters melted from amongst the trees like wraiths. She felt the boy beside her quivering.

"Run. I'll distract them. Go!" Fenris gave her a violent shove. Startled into obedience, she stumbled and started to sprint, raw terror thrumming through her veins.

She heard the twang of a bow and cried out as an arrow caught her sleeve, pinning her arm to a nearby tree trunk. She tugged on the coarse material but the weave was thick and designed for harsh winters. She couldn't tear it.

She heard a hoarse shout and spun, still tethered to the tree. A man was bearing down on Fenris, a long knife gleaming wickedly in his hand. Fenris barely reached his assailant's shoulder. His pale hair shone, nearly the same colour as the snow. For a moment, Elial's vision wavered, and she saw that silvery hair stained crimson. She bit down on her tongue. _No. _She closed her eyes and opened them, feeling the shift in seeing that was her power. The colours of the woods turned muted. The souls of the men surrounding her shone brightly. She grasped at them with her mind.

_Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. _

She coaxed the word into them, into the fibre of their beings. She pressed the sensation of gritty eyes, heavy limbs, yawns, into their minds. _Sleep. _

The man attacking Fenris stumbled, then dropped. She saw red stain the snow where he had cut himself with his own knife. She smiled grimly.

The other three hunters began to sway.

"It's the girl! She's the one bending!"

One of the men began to gesture, his movements clumsy and slow. Despite his disorientation, an icicle still tore itself away from a crooked branch and arrowed through the air. It tore into Fenris' shoulder with a dull thud. He fell bonelessly against an ice-sheathed trunk. Elial screamed. The noise cut through the snow-muffled silence of the woods. She felt something sleeping inside her stir, wake. It rose to the surface, shining and deadly.

Most of the hunters were native to the Earth Kingdom, dark haired and green eyed. The water-bender was different. He wore the same muted camouflage, but had the lean, cruel face of a wolf. His pale eyes were as cold and dull as ice.

Another jagged icicle hovered in the air beside his head. His voice was soft.

"I can send this right into his pretty blue eye. Stop what you're doing to my men."

Shivering, Elial let the compulsion lift. The sleeping man stirred, moaned. The others straightened.

The wolf-faced man pulled a vial from his sleeve.

"Drink this and the boy lives."

"What is it?" Elial's voice was almost lost in the keening wind.

"It won't kill you." He stepped forward, holding the potion within reach of her free hand. She hesitated. "Three, two-"

She snatched it from him.

"Do you promise Fenris will be alright? Will you get help for him?"

At the sound of his name, Fenris stirred. His eyes flickered open, then filled with horror.

"No! I'm dispensable! Don't-" one of the hunters kicked him. He cried out, falling back into the snow. It was slowly turning pink.

Elial could smell his blood.

The coppery tang changed everything.

The world stilled. Went motionless. She heard Aerys' husky voice, reverberating through her skull.

_Nightmares. Shadows. Power. Hell. _

She looked into the frozen eyes of the lean-faced man and crushed the vial in her fist. She felt the glass tear into her palm. She smiled.

He screamed, but it was too late. She pushed the illusion into him, made it fill him. He looked down and saw his skin blacken, crisp. Watched white liquid ooze from the fissures in his skin. He stamped and spun in a macabre dance, attempting to put out the flames. She filled his nose with the sweet scent of cooking flesh, made his eyes stream from the smoke, pushed the sense of burning, roasting, dying, on him until she felt his mind crack. He screamed, screamed, screamed. Suddenly the screaming stopped.

She tore her sleeve free from the arrow pinning it and turned to the next man. He gibbered with fear. She pointed at him cooly.

"Burn."

The word was barely out of her mouth when she heard a bow sing. Fenris cried out. She spun, her heart in her mouth, they couldn't have-

Something cold, cold, incredibly cold, pierced her side.

She fell backwards.

The world snapped back. She could hear her own harsh breathing, could smell the fear of the men around her. Felt something warm and sticky seeping down her side.

It hurt to breathe. Suddenly she was just a girl again, melting snow seeping into her skirt and an arrow burning, icy, in her side.

"No!" Fenris lunged towards her, one arm dangling useless at his side. A man with a black snake tattoo on his jaw flung him away like a rag doll. Elial saw Fenris' head strike a rock. Saw him lie still.

She couldn't muster the breath to scream. She clutched at her wound and stared wordlessly as more hunters began to emerge from the trees. Five, six, seven… Perhaps ten men, all wearing the bleached colours of the forest. All with expressions as blank and impassive as the snow they crushed underfoot.

Except one. The man with the snake tattoo loomed before her, his face twisted with hate.

"Monster! Somebody look after Alexis!" Two of the hunters crouched by the water bender, who rocked on the ground. She could hear him humming; a thin, constant note like the drone of an insect. The snake man grabbed her collar and dragged her upright, pressing her back against the tree. His clenched fist crushed her throat. "If I could kill you now, you'd burn for what you've done!" Hot flecks of spittle flew from his mouth and burned against her cheek. "You never should have existed- freak, abomination! We'll lock you so far below ground you'll never see light again." He spun to look at the other men. "Do we have another vial of the potion?"

"Alexis had the only one." The hunter who answered him had feathers tattooed on his cheekbones. His eyes were a flat, cruel yellow.

The snake man's smile was as thin and sharp as the knife he pulled from his belt.

"We've got no option then. To stop her bending she'll have to lose her eyes, her hands, her feet."

One of the men spoke; "The blood loss… surely a blindfold, ropes-"

"Too dangerous. If she slips them-" He nodded meaningfully at the man Alexis, curled in a ball now, whimpering quietly. "This is the only way."

He raised the knife, held it level before her right eye. "Don't struggle, or your face will end up mess-" The tip of a blade suddenly sprouted between his lips like a lean and deadly flower. Blood sprayed on her skin. Elial felt the cold rush of air as his body was yanked away from hers and slid to the ground with nothing to support her.

She stared blankly at his corpse, at the short sword transfixing his head, entering at the base of his skull and exiting through his mouth. She could hear the sounds of fighting but couldn't draw her eyes from the glistening steel point.

Then she saw Fenris a few meters away. She crawled to him. She lifted her hand from her ribs and saw that it was slick with her blood. She pressed it against his lips. She felt his life quickening; his skin warming, his heartbeat strengthening.

"Fenris-" His eyes flickered open.

"La!" Cain's voice, frantic. His long fingers felt familiar on her shoulders as he pulled her away from Fenris, spun her to face him. His hands brushed over her face, anxious, checking, halting at her ribs.

"You're hurt." His mellow voice was flat. He picked her up in one smooth motion and began to lope towards the keep.

"Wait! Fenris is-"

"Let him rot." The fury in Cain's voice stunned her. She shrank away from him, only now noticing the blood that patterned his clothes and skin, the scarlet smeared on his teeth and lips.

Over his shoulder, she saw Fenris stagger to his feet, her blood already healing him. He was a pale and forlorn figure in the clearing, which was silent, and crimson.

* * *

><p>Elial lay in bed stiffly. The drugs they had given her for the pain made her head spin. She held her arm away from her side carefully.<p>

She had refused to take the medicine until Cain promised to find Belial and bring him back. He had sworn to send Paladin out immediately; his teeth clenched so tightly she thought they would crack, and then stormed into the night, eyes bright with bloodlust.

The cloudy softness of the drugs lulled her into a waking dream.

_I was right, wasn't I?_

The voice was throaty, melodious. Elial didn't jump, just turned tiredly on her side to look at the beautiful woman standing by her bed.

"Aerys…"

_You're hurt! I didn't mean for you to get hurt! _

"I've spent the whole night convincing everyone that I'm fine. Adina still insisted on sleeping outside the door. And Cain will probably be here any minute. It's sore. But it's not dangerous. Baird thinks it just got muscle."

_Cain killed them all. _It wasn't a question. Elial stared into Aerys' queer eyes, the colour of honey, amber. They held a strange emotion. Not regret, or anger. Satisfaction? Pride?

"Why do you hate him?" Elial heard the hoarseness of her voice and swallowed tears. She refused to blink. It was the drugs, the pain. It wasn't the fact that her image of Cain, her best friend, her protector, the one who had saved her all those years before, was crumbling away like an ancient statue, Aerys' words a scoring wind.

_What I feel for him is nothing as simple as hate. _

Elial remembered the look of loathing in Cain's eyes as he stared at Fenris, and sat bolt upright, gasping with pain as the wound in her side twinged.

"Fenris! Have they found him? Have they healed him?"

Aerys stared at her for a moment, inscrutable as always. Her full red mouth twisted. _He's just a Blessed, Elial. Just a conduit. _

"He's my friend!"

_Be careful with him. He doesn't think of you as simply a friend. You don't want to encourage him. No, no… I can't imagine what Cain would do if he found out how-_

"Stop it! Just stop. Cain isn't what you say he is. He's gentle, and kind. He's not jealous, or cruel. Maybe that's you!"

Aerys' lips flattened into a straight line. _Cruel? I heard the servants whisper-whispering. I saw the bodies of the dead through Fenris' eyes. I felt your, our, power coating them all. Did you use the madness, Elial? Did you use the chaos?_

"Stop!" Elial bit her lip, clenched her fists so her nails dug into her palms. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up!"She chanted, eyes squeezed shut, trying to block out the melody of Aerys' voice.

She heard Aerys sigh gently, heard the rustle of her silk dress. She smelled vanilla, Aerys' perfume.

_That's just childish, Elial. I control this dream. You can't leave without my permission. You stay until I say what I came here to say. _Elial felt the bed sink as Aerys kneeled before her, straddling her thighs. Her eyes flew open when she felt silken hair brush against her cheek. Aerys peered at her, her face an inch from hers. Her long brown curls were like a curtain around them. Elial pressed back into the cushions, but she was pinned like a butterfly to a card.

_Fenris is nothing but a messenger, my puppet. He put you in danger. He shouldn't have let you go out into the forest without a guard. Cain is vicious. You saw that side to him today. He loves to kill. He thrives on death. He would have killed Fenris, and rightly, too, if he didn't know how strangely attached you are to that boy. If he didn't know that you would never forgive him. Cain is not the man you think he is. He is deceiving you, as he deceives everyone. You must trust me, Elial. Why would I lie to you? I _am _you, and you are me._

"You're mad. All of you are mad." Elial whispered.

_Of course we are! We are the Divinity. We are chaos. There's nothing wrong with a little madness, Elial. It gives us our strength. We should understand each other perfectly. You're as mad as I am. _

"No."

Aerys shook her sharply. _Yes. I am your past self! Trust that I have wisdom you do not! I'm warning you, Elial. That man is bad for us. He has been with us too long. He's absorbed too much of the Divinity's power. He is closer to a demon than a man, but he has traces of humanity still. That makes him more dangerous than both. _

"You said our most loyal subjects were demons."

Aerys hissed. _Demons are honest. Demons are true to their nature. They take what they want, they fulfil any pleasures they have. Men are cunning. Men are unpredictable. You cannot trust a human. Trust _me_. _

"Get off." Elial struggled. Aerys was taller and stronger than her. Even in the dream, Elial's wound made her weak.

_Cain's back. He's trying to wake you up. You cried out in your sleep. But when he lies next to you tonight, think about the blood on his teeth, his hands. Remember his cruelty to Fenris. He wears a mask, Elial. He's deceiving you. When you're brave enough to believe me, I'll tell you the truth. I'll show you what he is._

Elial heard Cain's voice, felt his hands on her arms. She jerked awake with a shuddering gasp, and shrank away from him before her mind caught up with her body.

"La? La, are you all right? Does your side hurt? Do you need a sleeping potion?" His pale green eyes were catlike in the gloom of her room.

"I'm fine. Sorry. It was just a dream." She stared at his familiar face, clean now, without a trace of the carnage he had created in the forest. She realised she hadn't had a chance to speak with him properly since they had returned. It had just been a flurry of Paladin, healers, fussing.

"I'm sorry." His voice was low, intent. Elial jolted, startled.

"Why?"

"You were frightened, in the woods. What I did, to those men... You know I would never hurt you."

"-I know!"

"When I heard what they were saying... When I saw them with the knife- I just… La. You know that all of us are dependent on you. If you were hurt, if you went missing… If you died, all the Paladin would perish too. You know that. Our blood is tied to your blood. You are indispensable."

"I'm sorry. I know. I try to be careful, but…"

"I told you not to go out. I told you there were dangerous people out there! People who know about the existence of the Divinity. People who want to destroy you because they don't understand you. Because they fear you."

"Who were they?"

"Templars. But how did they know? We thought we were safe… How did they know who you were?"

"Did you have to kill them all?" the question burst from her. Cain stared at her, his skin gilded alabaster in the moonlight. He smiled at her gently, sadly.

"You know who I am, La. You know there was no choice."

She nodded, stiffly. She was being a hypocrite. What she had done was worse. She had invaded a man's mind. Had tortured him to insanity. It hadn't even been self preservation. It had been revenge.

But then, what had she expected? She was the Divinity. A soul bender. The inorganic, the unnatural. The Avatar may communicate with the Spirit world on behalf of the physical world, but she was his counterpart, the Queen of Demons. She was their connection with the material realm.

If her guardians were inhuman, it was only because her dark power had made them so.


End file.
